The Lowland region North of Scotland Distillery opened in Cambus 1957, initially producing malt whiskies under the 'Strathmore' brand. George P. Christie, owner of the North of Scotland Distilling Co. had bought the former Knox's Forth Brewery on Station Road, Cambus and installed two pot stills to produce the spirit.
Knox Forth Brewery, Cambus - OS map
Mr. Christie spent £10,000 purchasing the buildings from brewers, Blair & Co. of Alloa, who had purchased and closed the Knox concern in 1954.
North of Scotland Distillery - 1960s
The late 50's and early 60's were a boom period for Scotch whisky production, and soon Christie saw the benefit of installing patent stills, to produce grain whisky, which could also supply the whisky blenders, as he had been doing with his malt whisky.
Three patent stills were installed, which had the capacity to distil 2,700 litres of wash per hour.
When converting the brewery into a distillery the local planners had set Christie a maximum roof height for the development. (possibly due to the building being at the time almost 100 years old) This was going to be an issue, since the patent stills ordered were far too tall. However to get around this, the stills were installed in pits dug into the floor of the building, which allowed the stills to operate correctly in the given roof height.
The grain whisky was marketed under the 'North of Scotland' brand, and also the 'Alloa' brand.
Strathmore and North of Scotland operated side-by-side, producing both malt and grain whisky. However the demand for grain whisky at that time far outstripped that of malt, and so in 1959 Christie stripped out the pot stills to install an additional mash tun to increase North of Scotland’s grain output.
The North of Scotland Distillery was known for innovation. In the 1960s, they made a unique single grain whisky with malted barley.
However, the distillery faced challenges. In the late 1970s, three of the company directors died.* Market changes and industry consolidations led to its closure in 1980.
In 1982 the distillery was sold to their next door neighbours, the Distillers Company Limited (DCL), and the equipment was sold off or redistributed to other DCL distilleries.
Around 1993 most of the buildings were demolished and the site was used briefly to lay out and construct railway points for the railway line refurbishment between Alloa and Stirling. The area has since been redeveloped as a staff car park for the Cambus cooperage facility. (Pic. - Google Earth Image)
George Christie went on to open the Speyside Distillery, Kigussie, in 1990.*
References:
MasterOfMalt.com
whisky-emporium.com
Scotchwhisky.com
* Scotch Missed by Brian Townsend